With so many other companies vying for people’s attention, one way your business can stand out from the competition is by developing a strong brand identity. And a critical element of branding design is research.
Before you start developing your brand identity’s visual assets, it’s important to make sure that you’re on the right track. If you don’t know where to start, here are five tips you can follow to develop a distinct brand identity:
Evaluate Your Existing Core Identity
The first step to creating a successful brand identity is to identify your company’s core philosophies, such as your mission, vision, and values. Also known as your core identity, it explains why your company exists, what it does, and the beliefs that influence its actions. Essentially, your core identity is what your company stands for. Knowing this serves as the foundation for every decision you make in the brand development process.
That said, our world is constantly changing, and your core identity may have also evolved over the years to adapt to the times. So ask yourself if your original mission, vision, and values are still relevant to what your company actually stands for now. Then, you’ll need to assess whether your brand identity still properly communicates your business’s philosophies.
Conduct Market and Competitor Research
Your company doesn’t exist in a vacuum. So once you’ve evaluated your core identity, it’s time to get more information about the market that your company serves. Specifically, you’ll want to know how big it is and how it’s changed over the years.
Then, the next step is to get a better idea of where your company is positioned in your industry, which can be done by looking at what and how your competitors are doing. By knowing what already exists in the market, you’ll know which strategies to emulate and which to avoid. This will also help you assess whether your branding is too similar to that of another business.
Assess People’s Perception of Your Brand
To find out whether your current brand identity is working or not, you’ll need to see how well you’re connecting with your audience. To do this, we recommend tracking your branded impressions, the performance of branded keywords, your overall internet search volume, and your social media engagement, to name a few. Additionally, you can look up online reviews of your company and ask your customer service team for some insights. You can also make attractive videos and post them on Youtube. YouTube is one of the most popular video streaming sites so the chances of getting more views increases. If you are a new user of Youtube, then you may use automation to manage your youtube channel better. If you do not know, What is YouTube automation? You may google to know about it.
These insights can help you confirm whether your current branding is sending the right message about your company. Otherwise, a misaligned brand identity may result in cognitive dissonance between your brand and your business. For example, if your company prides itself on providing quality products at rock-bottom prices, you’ll want to avoid creating a brand identity that appears luxurious or expensive.
Develop Detailed Buyer Personas
The only way you can develop a brand identity that resonates with your customers is to gain a better understanding of who they are and what makes them tick. Hence, you’ll need to sit down and create your buyer persona sheets. Put simply, this describes your ideal customer to a T, covering their demographics and psychographics, their buying behaviours, and how they interact with your brand.
Some questions you’ll want to ask about your customers include but are not limited to:
- Who are they? What is their gender? How old are they? Where do they live?
- What do they do? Are they currently taking up a college degree? Are they already working? What industry do they work in?
- What are their pain points? What keeps them up at night? What irritates them?
- How do they get information? Do they check their social media feeds for updates? Do they subscribe to newsletters or podcasts?
- What, where, and when do they buy? Do they prefer to purchase products online or from a physical store? Do they buy after work or for a special occasion?
Determine Your Unique Selling Proposition
Generally speaking, your brand’s unique selling proposition is what makes your offer better than that of the competition. To help you articulate this, think about what it is that your business ultimately stands for, or what makes it well-known among your consumer base. For example, Apple places an emphasis on providing high-end devices and frictionless user experience. On the other hand, most people associate Google with easy access to information and Amazon with quick, efficient, and affordable product delivery.
In Conclusion
Indeed, your branding will only be as strong as the planning and research you put in. By taking the time to carry out these steps, you’ll obtain insightful data that can help steer your brand strategy in the right direction. With this information in hand, we’re sure that you’ll create a brand identity that stands out from the crowd and resonates with your audience.
